Kota Kinabalu: The government's efforts to identify more local sporting talents has resulted in the staging of a bigger and better Sabah Games (Saga) this year than the previous one held in Sandakan, two years ago.Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Youth and Sports Minister, Datuk Peter Pang En Yin said a total of 108 athletes who were part of the State contingent for the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Melaka, last June, were selected from the 2009 Saga and that hopefully more would be identified this year.
"We hope that this 5th edition of the Sabah Games would be able to produce more quality athletes so we can include them in the State contingent for the 14th Malaysia Games in Pahang next year," said Pang.
He told a press conference this after chairing the first Main Committee meeting at the Shangri-La's Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa here, yesterday.
Also present were Youth and Sports Assistant Minister, Datuk Jahid Jahim, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry, Datuk Michael Emban, his deputy, Penyuki Matta, Sabah Sports Board Chairman, Datuk Louis Rampas, Sabah Sports Board General Manager, Mahmood Kalong and Sabah Sports Council Director, Abdul Rahman Laman, among others.
Pang said in its mission to produce more sporting talents through the staging of Saga, the Ministry, through the Sabah Sports Council (the organising body for the Games), has decided to include three new disciplines, which were previously not contested at the Games in Sandakan.
"A total of 23 sporting disciplines would be competed in this edition of the Games. Three of them, namely weightlifting, net ball and archery are new ones.
"We actually have some talented athletes in these sports. Some of them have won medals for the State in last year's Sukma, therefore justifying the inclusion of these disciplines in this year's Saga. Apart from the development of athletes, Pang said Saga also provides development opportunities in terms of infrastructure and facilities for the district host.
"It also provides a good opportunity for the local technical officers to develop their skills and gain experience from the staging aspect," said Pang.
Among the new facilities that were constructed specially for Saga is the new lawn bowls centre and hockey turf.
Upgrades, refurbishment and repair works were also done on existing facilities among them the tennis courts, running track and badminton halls.
Around 7,000 to 8,000 athletes, coaches and sports officials would be taking part in the State-level meet, which would be staged in Keningau, Tambunan and Tenom from June 6 to 11.
Keningau would host most of the events namely badminton, football (boys), volleyball, lawn bowling, golf, hockey, archery, track and field, pencak silat, table tennis, rugby, sepak takraw, teakwondo, tennis, boxing and wushu.
The events that would be held in Tambunan on the other hand are football (girls), weightlifting and karate, while in Tenom would be cycling, basketball and net ball.
A total of 235 gold medals would be up for grabs compared to only 162 in 2009.
The budget for this year's Saga was not announced but it was learnt through inside sources that more funds (possibly double) would be spent compared to the amount spent previously.
It was also decided during the meeting that this year's Saga mascot would be a deer (rusa/payau) named Matulai.
